Kaja Backstory
by gre7g
Summary: Prequel to my novel, Brick & Mortar.
1. Chapter 1

Orphaned.

To an Orc, orphaned means that you have lost both of your parents.

But unlike Orcs, Tauren live in large family tribes known as utankan. Although they generally have a special fondness for their parents, the calves are raised by the entire tribe. All of a Tauren's utankan are her family.

An orphaned Tauren has lost a whole lot more than most people could ever imagine.

# # #

Gorrum sat at the top of the stairs and stared out across the darkened Drag. The burly Orc smoked a cigar in silence.

The cigars were precious. Although not outrageously expensive, they were the lone extravagance that he kept hidden away in the modest apartment; saved for the very best of the best days... and the very worst of the worst as well.

Agra came out in her bathrobe and took a seat beside her husband.

"Did you find them?" she asked. He did not answer, so she felt compelled to ask again. "Were you able to find Kaja's family?"

Gorrum nodded slowly and drew the smoke deep into his lungs. He blew it out in short little puffs, and didn't speak until it was all gone. "We spent a week burying them. I'm... really tired."

Agra put a hand on his shoulder. "Did any others escape?"

He nodded again and stretched out the fingers of a single hand.

"Five? Five Tauren?" she gasped quietly, worried she might wake the child from her bed.

"Five, including Kaja," he explained. "Two other calves, a yearling, and an elder."

Traditionally peaceful nomads, the Tauren once wandered Mulgore with the seasons. They bothered no one and no one bothered them. From time to time, different tribes would cross paths as they migrated, and for a short while the two utankan would merge. They would share what they had and hold a celebration known as a nokee zhi.

That was before the centaur wars, of course. The centaurs had chased the Tauren from their ancestral home, and pursued them with a genocidal hatred.

The warchief, Thrall, had observed both races closely when the Orcs first came to Azeroth. Although neither race would ever admit it, the half-man/half-horse centaurs and the half-man/half-cow Tauren actually had a lot in common.

Gorrum suspected that was why they fought one another so viciously.

While his men built Orgrimmar, Thrall considered allying with both races. He had hoped that a common enemy would unite the two, but it was pointless. The world could burn and neither the Tauren nor the centaur would notice, so long as they were at each others' throats.

In the end, Thrall decided to ally with the Tauren. Not, mind you, because he felt that the Tauren were right and that the centaur were wrong. Right and wrong would be decided by the historians, but the warchief was a practical man that very much lived in the "now". Thrall had nothing to offer the centaur, but he was certain that if his troops could liberate Mulgore, then the noble Tauren would forever stand beside the Orcs.

"What will..." Agra couldn't quite find the words. "Where will they take her? Will they merge up with another tribe?"

Gorrum rolled the stogy back and forth in his fingers a while before shaking his head. "It's impossible. No one knows if any other tribe has wandered all the way to Durotar. They'd have to walk all the way back to the Barrens. And then searching for other Tauren on foot? It could take months to find another tribe to take them in."

Gorrum chuckled and gestured with the smoldering cigar. "He's proud, that old man. That's exactly what he intended to do. But there's just no way he could manage it. He couldn't protect them by himself. He couldn't provide for them all by himself. Letting them go would be a death sentence."

"But your outriders..." she whispered.

"...have their own battles to fight," he finished for her. "As much as I'd like to see them safely on their way, we can't spend a month escorting them back to the Barrens."

"But it wouldn't have to take a month," she protested. "You've ridden all the way from here to Far Watch Post in three days..."

Gorrum put his arm around Agra's shoulders. "Aye... I could take Kaja on my mount. Two of my men could take the other calves as well... But have you ever seen a Tauren yearling?" He shook his head. "That boy is nearly as big as I am!"

Gorrum grinned as he thought back about the lighter moments of the preceding week. Jorrag, the yearling, reminded him so much of a lanky Orcish teen. He was so strong, so eager, and so clumsy. He was constantly tripping over his own hooves. "I could teach him, perhaps, how to ride a worg, but what of the old man? Do I toss him in the back of an ox cart?"

Agra wiped away a tear. They had been brimming below the surface, and were just now beginning to spill out. "So what will become of them?"

Another drag on the cigar. "Matron Battlewail will watch the orphans. Perhaps she can find someone to take them in. As for the boy and old man..." He shrugged. "I wish I knew."

Agra leaned her head against Gorrum's shoulder. She wanted to talk about Kaja, but couldn't form the words. They had never intended to adopt a child, but now that the Tauren calf was here, she couldn't bear the thought of losing Kaja any more than her own daughter, Grima.

The silence stretched.

Gorrum offered her a drag on the cigar. "So how are the kids?" he asked.

There was something in the way that he said "the kids". She could feel the way he grouped them together, as if they were both his own.

The dam burst open and the tears spilled out. Agra wiped her face with the sleeve of her gown.

"I think you should savor that cigar," Agra whispered and patted his arm.

Gorrum nodded and rolled the cheroot between his fingers. Keeping Grima in clothes that fit hadn't been nearly the challenge, that Kaja would be. And if her appetite was anything like the other calves...

"I don't suppose there's any supper left?"

"Nope," Agra said with a shake of her head. "Not a scrap."


	2. Chapter 2

Kaja loved her adoptive parents, but the bond that formed between them had nothing on that between her and Grima.

Grima had always wished for a sister, and so Kaja's arrival was like a dream come true. To Grima, the little Tauren girl was a cross between sister, imaginary-friend-come-to-life, and life-sized stuffed animal. She was always within arm's reach of her new best friend. And if she wasn't hugging the poor girl, she was holding her hand.

At any other time, such an outpouring of physical contact would have been uncomfortable for the naturally-shy calf, but as things were, it couldn't be more welcome.

Kaja embraced the new family that she needed so badly. And for the next several weeks, the girls were inseparable.

# # #

Agra peeked inside the children's room. The bed was made, but the covers were crumpled as if someone had been jumping on it. Grima's toys were distributed across the floor.

A pair of bare feet stuck out from under the bed. Beside them were a matching pair of hooves.

Grima sat the lunch plate on top of the bed. She laid down on the floor and peeked under the covers.

Grima was humming tunelessly and spinning her doll one way and then the other. Agra had seen Omagga (Grima's doll) dance many times before. Agra smiled. Omagga only danced when Grima was happy.

Beside her, Kaja was holding her doll (Halfa) and stroking its long, yarn hair. Kaja looked up at Agra with her big, brown eyes.

"Mom!" Grima groaned, "You're interrupting their party."

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a party without lunch. Is Omagga hungry?"

Grima shrugged.

"Well, I bet Halfa is hungry."

Kaja's eyes moved between the doll and her adoptive mother. The doll nodded with a full-bodied bow.

"I thought so," Agra said, setting the plate between them.

Grima took a single date from the plate and pretended to feed it to her doll. "Ew! Fennel. I hate fennel," she said with a wrinkled nose as she surveyed the rest of the day's fare.

Grima gave Agra a serious look. "Kaja doesn't like fennel either."

"Oh, really?" her mother said, disbelief apparent in her voice.

"Nu-uh." The orcish girl shook her head. The calf looked worried that her new mother would take the strongly-flavored roots away.

"Well, there's cheese too. And there's a piece of ham for each of you."

Agra stood up and straightened her skirt. She smiled at the distinctive crunch of fennel bulbs coming from under the bed.

# # #

The children made up little stories and acted them out with their dolls. They played dress-up with Agra's clothes. They ate, bathed, slept, and spent every single moment together.

Within a month, Kaja seemed to emerge from her shell.

As she washed the family's clothes, Agra watched the children play at the edge of the pond. Kaja leapt fearlessly from stone to stone that peeked out above the water's surface. Grima copied her actions, but with more caution and less reckless abandon.

When she came to rocks that were too far apart to safely jump, Grima whimpered. She turned around, and worked her way back to shore. With each jump, she looked over her shoulder, hopefully, wishing that her big sister would rejoin her.

Kaja tried each leap, no matter how far.

With a giant splash, she slipped beneath the surface.

A moment passed, and sputtering, Kaja clawed her way to the surface.

She steadied herself atop her new perch, swung her arms, and made the next leap...


	3. Chapter 3

Gorrum was on patrol some weeks, and on other weeks he stayed within the city. Those were the best weeks of all. When not on patrol, he was home every night, laughing loudly over dinner and telling the girls stories at bedtime.

Sometimes, Agra would take the girls to watch Gorrum drill with his men. Grima shrieked with joy when her father sparred with the others. Kaja liked the shiny armor and weapons.

Out on the desert, the Tauren armored themselves with thick hides. They made their spears and hammers from wood and stone.

The Orcs forged metal in coal fires pumped with giant bellows. They beat glowing metal on mighty anvils, filling the air with sparks and a wonderful music unlike any Kaja had heard before.

She stared wide-eyed at the array of tools used to work metal. In a shop beside the practice-grounds, they had pliers and tongs of every shape and size. Hammers and chisels lined every wall.

A green ball with bat ears and far too many teeth hissed at Kaja from atop a work bench. "The blacksmith next door makes horse shoes, fuzz-ball."

Kaja ignored the rude creature as she took in the sights and sounds of men working metal.

Nogg growled angrily at the child in his doorway. He wrenched the bullet from a shell, and replaced it with a short length of fuse. A quick twist with pliers crimped it shut. With a single motion, he lit the fuse and tossed the device in front of the calf's hooves.

Pow!

Kaja dropped her ears to her head and covered them with her hands. Her head rang from the concussion.

Instead of fleeing, she set her dolly on the floor and retrieved the twisted copper jacket. The metal was hot, so she held it gently.

It was the most wonderful thing ever. The orange metal had been pounded thin like a leaf, but it was still as hard as stone. Pinching it tightly between her thumbs and first fingers, she tried to flatten it out. The metal was crimped too tightly to get at with her nails, so she bit it with her teeth.

A nasty bitter soot coated the inside of the shell, and its strange acrid smell filled her nose. Kaja spit on the floor to get rid of the taste and went back to working the metal flat.

She squatted in the doorway, using the flag stone as an anvil and a small rock she found outside the door as a hammer.

"Kaja! We're leaving..." Agra shouted.

The child scooped up Halfa and the precious, copper trinket, waved farewell to a bewildered oblin and ran off to catch up with her mother.

# # #

Kaja ran home crying.

She buried her face in the crook of Gorrum's arm. He scooped her up and squeezed her close.

"Shh..." he whispered. "It's going to be alright."

He rocked the child back and forth and patted her back. "What happened, sweety?"

"A boy..." she bawled, "he was mean to me!"

Gorrum kissed her forehead and waited for her to continue.

"He said, 'Go away! We don't play with cows!'"

"Oh did he?" the huge Orc said. "And did he say it mean? Like he was trying to hurt your feelings?"

Two fuzzy, tear-stained cheeks nodded.

"And so, did you break his nose?"

The tears stopped falling and Kaja stared slack-jawed at her dad.

"Well if you didn't punch him, then what did you do?" He arched a thick eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. "Ah... I see. You ran back here to have me do it for you."

Gorrum grinned wide and began carrying the child back to the playground. He made a mighty fist and held it in front of her face. "You've come to the right person. I will hit him so hard that his children will be born without teeth." Ever so gently, he pressed the flat of his fist against her wet cheek and turned her face to the side, simulating a punch in slow motion.

From the look on her face, it was clear that Kaja did not know how to react.

"Can you make a fist?" he asked. "C'mon, show me those mighty meathooks of yours. No... under... put your thumb in front of your fingers. Aha! Now that's the fist of a warrior!"

Kaja smiled timidly, unsure, but happy to get approval from the man she loved.

"I bet you've got some power behind those fists!" Gorrum said as he carried the girl down the Drag. "Show me how tough they are. Plant one right here... right on my chin."

Kaja's ears drooped in terror. She couldn't imagine hurting someone she loved so.

"Oh don't worry. I have a jaw of steel, and your mother has knocked out all my teeth long ago."

None of this made any sense. He had plenty of teeth. His tusks were very handsome.

Kaja punched at Gorrum's chin, but was rewarded only with a shake of the head and a tsking. "Certainly you can do better than that!"

He held her under the armpits, just in front of his face. "Use both fists. Show me how you feel when someone makes fun of you."

Kaja punched at Gorrum's face and he bellowed the laugh that she enjoyed so. "That's much better!" He threw her up in the air and caught her.

She smiled and rode her father's shoulders back to the playground.

Gorrum set the girl down on her feet, and he knelt before her. "I'm ready. Or... would you rather do this?" he asked. "Would you rather knock his teeth out?"

A moment of hesitation and less-than-certain nod.

"Wonderful!" Gorrum boomed and she reflected some of his smile. "Show me how this is done!"

Kaja's tail traced a figure eight as she made a bee line for her target. She pounced him like the legendary cat, Echeyakee.

Gorrum smiled with hands on hips. He turned to the fierce-looking Orc gal beside him.

"That your boy?"

She smiled proudly.

"He's a scrapper!"

She grinned with over-sized teeth and slapped his shoulder in an affectionate way. "I did not realize there were Tauren in Orgrimmar."

"That's Kaja," Gorrum explained. "We adopted her when her tribe was killed by centaurs."

The woman's thick, black eyebrows arced in sympathy. "That's so kind of you," she said around her teeth, in a husky, breathy voice.

Gorrum grimaced momentarily as the Orcish boy connected with Kaja's nose. "That's some reach, your boy has! Your husband must have quite the arms on him."

The woman laughed loud and slapped him hard on the back. "That's my side of the family, he takes after!" she explained. "His father would have me pass the carrots even if they were right in front of him."

Gorrum laughed so hard at her bluntness that a tear formed in the corner of one eye.

"Shanla," she said, shaking Gorrum's hand with an iron grip.

"Gorrum," he replied with a grin.

"I think they're almost done."

Gorrum looked up and the children were rolling around in the dirt. Kaja had the boy in some sort of haphazard headlock. She may have been biting him, but no more punches were being thrown.

They walked over together and knelt before the panting children. Gorrum helped Kaja to her feet and brushed some dirt from her dress. He gently peeled back her lips. "It looks like you kept all your teeth."

"Same here," Shanla said, content with the inspection of her son. "We call it a tie."

"Well done!" Gorrum cheered.

He lifted Kaja high and put her back on his shoulders. "Now wave goodbye. You can play more tomorrow, but we need to get you cleaned up for supper."


	4. Chapter 4

Agra knew that the children's perfect sisterhood couldn't last forever. With each passing week, the Tauren girl seemed to grow an inch taller. Her dress became a skirt, and then it had to be replaced entirely.

Grima was jealous that Kaja was getting new clothes, but she was oh so excited when she found that she could wear everything that no longer fit her sister.

But more pressing than Kaja's physical changes were her emotional changes. In three short months, Kaja had gone from the timid little calf that Grima led by the hand, to a young girl that looked after her little sister.

To Agra, Kaja seemed like a dry sponge, soaking up everything around her. Her mind was sharp and soon she was the one answering Grima's endless string of questions. How she had learned so much, so fast confounded her Orcish mother.

Agra encouraged Kaja to play with the older kids. It was hard on Grima, of course, to suddenly have to share her new sister. It was especially hard for her to be unwelcome among the older children.

But there was no undoing the seeming age difference between them or that older kids of every race hated tag-along, baby sisters. And there was no slowing the ever-widening age gap between the siblings.

Kaja took it all in stride. She played with one set of Orcish friends until she outgrew them, and then she moved on to older kids. It might have been confusing for her playmates, but it seemed a natural progression for the not-so-little Tauren girl.

But every evening, Kaja came home and helped her little sister get ready for bed. She gave Grima piggy-back rides and told her bedtime stories. She told her sister that no matter how tall she grew, she would always love Grima the most.

Agra watched from the doorway as Kaja kissed her sister's forehead. She tried not to think about how soon the Tauren child would outgrow their entire family, and head out to start her own.

# # #

There were no two ways about it. Grima's bed would soon be too small to share. So Gorrum bolted a large cot to the wall of the children's room. The cot folded up against the wall, leaving plenty of room for the children to play during the day.

Kaja looked absurd on the gigantic bed, but if she were to grow a fraction as large as the old man, the elder the Outriders had also rescued, then even this cot would not be large enough.

"Breakfast is ready," Agra said, entering the bedroom with fists on hips, "are you ladies coming or not?"

Grima was jumping on her bed with fingers in her ears. "Kaja's loud!" she complained.

Kaja was still fast asleep in a position that looked uncomfortable at best. The Tauren girl was laying on her back with her neck wrenched backward. Her mouth hung open and her chin pointed in the opposite direction of her hooves.

She snored like Gorrum with a head cold.

Agra sat down beside the girl and placed a warm hand on Kaja's chest. "You're going to give yourself a crick in the neck, child." She gave her a little rub. "Come on, rise and shine."

Kaja groaned and blinked a few times. "Wha?" she moaned as she lifted her head.

As she moved, her small linen pillow moved with her. Her little, stubby horns had punched right through it, and it was now hopelessly snagged on them.

The girl startled and began to flail, to get it off.

"Don't, don't tear it. Let me help you," Agra said. "You've gored it, I'm afraid." Ever so gently, she peeled the cloth free and pinched the holes closed so that the feathers would not spill out.

Kaja stared wide-eyed and tears followed. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be silly, child," Agra said, kissing her forehead. "Don't make it into something bigger than it is."

Agra hugged Kaja to her chest, "I'll sew it up today, and it will be ready for bedtime."

Not to be left out, Grima leapt to the cot from her bed; and her mother hugged her close with her other arm.

"Now, let's get some porridge before it's too cold to eat!"


	5. Chapter 5

Orgrimmar winters weren't that bad, really. Not in comparison to the snowy months in the Ashenvale forests, at least. But they were chilly enough to make Kaja grow a winter coat of shaggy tan fur. The white blaze on her forehead grew long and had a tendency to hang down in front of her eyes.

Agra begged her to trim it, but Kaja liked the way it looked.

Winter began to wane. Although far from warm, Orgrimmar's inhabitants no longer rushed from building to building. They lingered outside on their travels, looking for signs of spring.

When the clouds cleared and the winds died, the kids would gather atop the cliffs overlooking Orgrimmar and bask in the winter's weak sun.

Kaja's latest group of friends were clustered on the tops of Orgrimmar's outermost cliffs. This afforded them the best view of the vast desert valley, and the travellers headed in and out of the city's front gates.

Kaja didn't care for sitting idly and watching the world go by. She really wanted to build a tree house (not that there were any trees), or dig a cave fort. She was itching to do something with her hands, but no one wanted to trade in the sunny warmth of the clifftops for the cold shadows of Orgrimmar's valleys.

Everyone was tired of winter and ready for spring to start.

With the sharp corner of some copper scrap, Kaja dug grooves into the soft sandstone. She tried to carve a Tauren face, but it was turning out to be far harder than she had anticipated. The design looked more like a bird than anything, so she tried to turn it into a hawk.

Beside her, her best friend Shalash, was griping about her parents. The girl's mother made her change her baby brother's diaper. Kaja had never changed a diaper before, but from the description, it sounded like a dreadful task.

Kaja wrinkled her nose when her friend described the smell. "Ew! Stop it!" she said, but she didn't really want Shalash to stop. Kaja enjoyed hearing her friend's stories. They made her feel better about how easy it was to look after her little sister, Grima.

The boys were being stupid, as they always were. They didn't want to be near the girls, of course. But despite there being plenty of different clifftops to hang out on, they chose to loiter nearby.

The boys stood as close as they dared to the cliff's edge and tried to spit the farthest into the valley. It was exactly the sort of stupid, gross game that only boys could think up.

Throwing rocks for distance sounded like a good idea to Kaja, but spitting just seemed dumb. Who really cared how far someone could spit?

The boys were getting loud, and the girls had to raise their voices just to be heard.

"They're just jealous," Shalash said. "They want us to pay attention to them."

"Shut up!" Kaja bellowed.

Shalash giggled and put her fingers in her ears. "You can do that louder than anyone!"

Kaja grinned with all of her teeth, and her eyes disappeared into dark crescents. "You have to do it from your gut!" She clenched her muscles and poked her stomach with her primary fingers. "All gut."

A crowd was gathering around the boys.

Kaja sighed in exasperation. "What now?"

"Uh oh. I hope no one fell off," Shalash whispered.

If hanging out on the tops of cliffs sounds hazardous, it's worth mentioning that Orcish parenting was fairly unusual - even for a dangerous land like Kalimdor. Parents told their kids not to do something dangerous (such as getting near the edge of a cliff) only once, and then didn't mention it again. Although they love their children dearly, Orcs refuse to coddle anyone, including their own flesh-and-blood.

Durotan once said, "Let the nagundi (the foolish) seek their own graves. Better we mourn them now, then let them lead others to their doom on the battlefield."

A lot of Orcish wisdom was like that. Cold on the outside, practical, but caring for others deep down inside.

The girls stared at the crowd for a while before getting up to investigate.

Everyone was talking at once, and so they picked up the story in bits and pieces.

"They were standing over there," Karg said. "No, on top of the dark cliff."

"Perhaps it was a sentry."

"I don't see anyone."

"They tried to cross over to that ridge with all the sagebrush, and then tumbled down the slope."

"There's no one at the bottom of that cliff."

Karg growled in frustration. "You can't see him now. He's down... down behind those boulders."

Shalash tried to get to the cliff edge where she could get a look, but Kaja didn't bother.

Taurens can see well enough close-up, but to her, a cliff looked like a cliff. A dark smudge on one of the cliffs facing Orgrimmar could just as easily be a man as it could be a bush or a sheep.

To Kaja, it seemed unlikely that anyone could tell what was a man falling off a cliff and what was just a simple landslide. She figured Karg had made it up to get attention, just like he always did.

"We should go down there and see if he's dead."

"Don't be stupid. They'd never let us leave the city without an escort."

"We should tell someone."

"Shut up!"

Kaja picked up a small stone and tossed it over the edge. It was a long way down. The cliff was nearly vertical for at least fifty feet.

"We could take one of the rogue ropes..."

Everyone turned silent at once.

There were over a dozen rogue ropes anchored across Orgrimmar's outer ridge. The guards maintained the coils of knotted rope just in case an army was ever foolhardy enough to try and siege the city.

Should the Alliance ever try that, the silent killers from the Cleft of Shadow would use the ropes to slip out of the city unseen. No army, no matter how mighty, wanted enemy rogues sneaking around their encampment at night.

"We could do that," someone whispered.

Less-than-certain nods circled the group.

"We can't leave a rope hanging," Kaja said. She didn't look back at the group from where she stood.

Almost everyone nodded in agreement. The children were forbidden from playing with the ropes, of course, but lowering a rope and leaving it hanging? Allowing someone to sneak inside the city undetected, even if you did it by accident, would be treason.

The Orcs did not forgive stupidity; not even in children.

"You should stay behind," one of the boys said. "You could pull it back up after we were all down."

Kaja spun around, livid at his attempt to exclude her.

"Well, yeah," Drog, one of the shorter boys, added, "can you even climb a rope with hooves?"

In the blink of an eye, Kaja planted one of her hooves in the boy's solar plexus. He dropped like a stone, doubled over in pain.

Kaja knelt beside Drog and spoke calmly in his ear. "Oh, that must be why mountain goats have fleshy little toes... to help them hold on when they're hopping from hopping from rock to rock..." She grinned up at Shalash. "Oh no, that's right. They have hooves too, don't they?"

Kaja hoped the brown-haired boy would jump up and finish the fight properly. Kicking him was a bit of a cheap shot, and she was certain she could take anything he could dish out.

Drog seemed uninterested in brawling, so Kaja extended a hand and helped the Orc to his feet. "Anyone with a stomach ache can volunteer to stay behind," Kaja announced.

A couple hands went slowly up. Drog raised his too.

Karg slapped Drog on the back in a friendly way. "Thanks! Let's go."


	6. Chapter 6

Climbing down the rope turned out to be really fun. Kaja felt it was a shame that they didn't get to do this all the time. Why do rogues get all the fun?

Soon, all the children going had gathered at the top of the scree, and were ready to head off across the desert. It seemed unlikely that anyone who spotted them would try to stop them, but just in case, they decided to move quickly until they were at least out of earshot of the city's walls.

Orcs are very competitive and Kaja was no different. They ended up running far longer than they had intended, just to see who was the fastest. Soon most of them were laying or kneeling in the sand, trying to catch their breath.

Shalash turned out to be much faster than Kaja had guessed. Keeping up with her was hard!

When everyone was rested, the band set out with Karg leading the way. Kaja and Shalash trailed behind, talking and purposely bumping each other with their shoulders.

This was way better than just hanging out on the cliffs.

Their destination was farther away than it had looked, and the going was a lot tougher too. There were no paths leading there.

The worst part was that the entire landscape looked different close-up. It had been so much easier for Karg to spot their destination from way up high.

They split into groups of twos and threes, looking for the boulder field beneath the dark cliff face.

Kaja and Shalash didn't look very hard. They spent most of the time sitting on top of a rock, talking. Kaja peeled bark off of sagebrush sticks and Shalash balanced rocks in tall stacks.

After an hour, most of the kids presumed that Karg had been lying. Some of the more bored kids started to discuss going back. Heroically saving a fallen soldier would totally balance the trouble they'd get in for leaving the city alone. But if they couldn't end up actually rescuing anyone, then there was no point in making their punishments worse by coming back after nightfall!

"Up here! Come quick!" someone was yelling. Kaja could see them waving their arms, even if she couldn't make out who it was, from this distance. They had climbed much farther up the cliff than seemed reasonable. Certainly the boulder field was lower down than that.

"Probably stuck," Kaja chuckled with a grin.

"Or found a dead coyote," Shalash replied. She stuck out her tongue.

"Actually," Kaja said, "that would be pretty cool."

Shalash scrambled after Kaja, trying to catch up.

The climb was rigorous, but the two girls stopped frequently to give each other a hand up. By the time they had reached the boulder field, they were two of the last ones up.

Everyone was talking at once again.

"What's he doing here?"

"Oh man, that's gotta' hurt. Did you see how that bone is sticking out?"

"We should get someone. Or bring him back to the city."

"He can't walk with a busted leg!"

"We could make a litter or something."

With everyone gathered around, the girls couldn't see. Shalash hopped in place, trying to look over the taller boys. Kaja gave her a leg up so she could stand atop a large rock.

Kaja sniffed the air. The smell of sweaty children was strong, but beyond that, there was no mistaking the smell of blood and horseflesh.

Someone cried out in agony.

Kaja's ears drooped against her head. If that's what standing on a broken leg sounds like, then she'd be more cautious on the way back down.

A new face, in obvious pain, appeared over the crowd. His arms were spread for support and many hands held him steady. He looked older than the children. He had hollow cheeks and a dirty face. He looked like a young adult, standing at least a head taller than the others.

The most startling thing about the stranger was the color of his skin. Unlike the Orcs, who had flesh in shades of green, this boy was sun-darkened brown. His long hair was sandy-blond, and was wavy, as if he had just undone a pony-tail.

His expression was scared and alone, but he seemed hesitantly thankful for the help. Any immobilizing injury could be fatal in the unforgiving desert.

His eyes took in the children one by one until his gaze stopped on Kaja. His jaw slackened in terror.

A silence fell over the crowd.

Kaja stared too, and soon the other children backed away, not interested in being between the two.

The boy's shoulders were covered with a torn buckskin jacket that hung open in the front. His chest was bare, down to his navel, where the shaggy body of pony began. His hind leg, on his left side, was twisted and bloodied from the fall.

A Kolkar!

The Orcs were at war with all of the centaur tribes, but it was unlikely that any of the children had lost loved ones in the fighting. Most of Thrall's progress in the campaign had been made by fanning the flames that already existed between the various centaur tribes, and in organizing the Tauren utankan (nomadic families) to work together.

Kaja had far stronger feelings about the Kolkar than any of her friends.

Her face froze over with an icy glare.

"Get... out... of here..." she said under her breath. Then she repeated it with increasing conviction, "Get out of here. Get out of here!"

Kaja snatched a rock from the ground and hurled it at the centaur. It struck him in the shoulder, startling the boy.

Scared out of his wits, the centaur tried to rear up. His broken leg couldn't bear the weight and he crashed roughly back down.

His scream was somewhere between human and equine.

The children, frightened of being trampled, scrambled away in every direction.

Everyone, except for Kaja, that was. She had grabbed a larger stone and threw it as well. "Get away from here, you néchi scum!" she shrieked.

The wounded centaur scrabbled away from the enraged Tauren girl. Five limbs worked to gain purchase on the rocks, while the last one was dragged behind.

Rock after rock flew. Kaja screamed at the top of her lungs.

The children continued their retreat; staring in horror as the violence unfolded.

A lone rock flew from over Kaja's left shoulder, and missed by a wide margin.

"Yeah!" Shalash yelled. "Go!"

One of Kaja's rocks hit its mark, landing just below the centaur's pointed ear. He stumbled and crashed back down.

The boy covered his head with his arms. He spoke a few words, but nothing the children could translate.

Karg threw a stone. "Centaur scum!" he shouted.

Their plan of helping the centaur forgotten, more of the children grabbed rocks.


	7. Chapter 7

The screaming had stopped... the rock throwing too.

The children had backed away, uneasy about what they had done.

Only Kaja remained. She beat her small fists against the motionless body. Tears flowed still, but the words had dried up.

Shalash put a hand on the girl's shoulder. Kaja spun her blood-splattered face towards her friend; seeing, but perhaps not recognizing.

"Come on," she whispered.

Kaja led the children silently back towards Orgrimmar.

Karg eventually broke the spell that hung over them. "Shouldn't we... I mean... someone..." he muttered. He cleared his throat. "Who's going to take care of the body?" His voice nearly failed him on the last word.

"Vultures," was Kaja's reply.

They never knew who the young man was, how he had gotten separated from his tribe, or found himself so far from home. Agra cleansed the blood from Kaja's clothes, and after a few days of moping, the Tauren girl returned to Shalash and her friends.

# # #

"Scram!" Nogg growled. "This is a machine shop, not a playground."

"But I wanna'..."

"Scram!" he interrupted.

Kaja set her jaw and stared daggers at the little creature.

He turned away and continued his work, but could not resist looking over his shoulder now and again to see that she was still there.

With each furtive glance, he groaned louder. When he could take it no longer, he exploded and leapt across the shop, confronting her face-to-as-close-as-he-could-manage-to-get-to-her-face.

Kaja looked down at the tiny creature, but refused to bend over.

"Leave," he said, but his voice lacked the conviction it had had only half an hour earlier.

"No."

"Fine," Nogg huffed. He grabbed a seldom-used broom and tossed it to her. "Sweep."

Kaja marveled at the shop. There were bits of metal, tools, and anvils. She wanted nothing more than to experiment with all of them.

The forge was cold, but it smelled unlike any fireplace or cook fire that she had ever encountered. It was all so mysterious.

She wanted to know what every powder was, and what it was used for.

Before she realized it, the shop floor was cleaner than it had ever been before.

Nogg looked around his store. For a moment, he almost looked impressed. "You finished?"

Kaja looked around too. She wiped sweat from her brow and nodded.

"Good," the Goblin said. "Now scram."

# # #

"Where have you been?" Agra demanded. "You've missed dinner entirely."

"I'm sorry. Igrim had a party to celebrate her birthday." She lowered her eyes. "I ate with her family."

Agra nodded and began to clear the table. "I was just worried."

Kaja watched her mother in silence. When the task was complete, Agra looked up, surprised to see the girl still there. She gave her a reassuring smile.

"Mom... do I... have a birthday?"

"Well of course you do, dear. I just..." Agra worried her lip, "I just don't know when it is. You came to us when you were a few months old."

Agra gave Kaja a hug. "Why don't you ask the old man?"

The girl swallowed hard.

Kaja didn't know how to feel about the elder. He didn't really seem a part of her world. Gorrum and Agra were her parents. The old man was a link to a world she knew nothing about.

A world that made her uncomfortable.


	8. Chapter 8

Kaja waited outside the armory with Grima. The Tauren girl squeezed her dolly to her chest with a death-grip, but Grima was delighted just to get to come along.

Kaja didn't say it, but she was thankful to have her sister with her. She couldn't bring any of her friends. There was just something so... shameful... about not knowing when your own birthday was. It was a reminder that she was different from the others.

Kaja hated being different.

Grima sat on a round stone and made her doll dance in her lap. She hummed to herself.

Kaja stood beside her and fidgeted.

After a long wait, the old man slowly emerged from the darkness of the armory. He moved like a force of nature, slow and unstoppable.

Over his shoulder, he carried the largest bundle of spears that had ever been lashed together. The burden was obviously heavy, but did not seem to bother him.

Despite the chill in the spring air, he wore only a long leather loin cloth. The thick fur on his back, arms, and legs was reddish-brown. His chest and belly were the color of cream. A large spiral design was painted over his heart in thick, blue paint.

One of Gorrum's men rode up to the old Tauren and gave him instructions on where to take the spears. Only from atop his mount could the Outrider speak face-to-face with the old man.

The Tauren smiled and nodded before continuing on his way.

"Elder?" Kaja squeaked as he approached. He stopped before her and set the bundle down on the ground.

He crouched down low to face her. "Yes, little one?" His voice sounded like a well.

Kaja was overwhelmed. The old man had the strong scent of Tauren. She had been living with Orcs for so long that she had almost forgotten what her own kind smelled like. Words could not explain. To her, he just smelled "huge".

"Wow! You're... tall!" Grima squealed.

The old man smiled as slowly as everything he did. He turned his long, pale horns towards the Orcish girl. "And this must be your new anohe," he said. Using the Taurahe word for sister.

"I am Atepa of the Longstrider clan." Ever so gently, he offered his hand palm-up to the little girl.

Her doll forgotten, Grima took his primary finger in both of her hands and shook it up and down. "I'm Grima!"

"May the wind be always at your back, young Grima." His words were as unhurried as his enormous hooves.

Atepa turned his face back to Kaja.

"Um..." Kaja murmured, "When was I born?"

The old man put his hands under Kaja's armpits and lifted her up to his face. His eyes didn't seem to follow her. They weren't bright, like Gorrum's.

Atepa put his wrinkled nose to Kaja's ears and took a long, slow breath.

No amount of Orcish soap could wash away her personal scent. It was light, and warm, and as memorable as every aroma the old man had ever smelled.

"You were born in the spring, my child. In the early morning. We wrapped you in a sheep skin, and held you to the sky. You cried so hard." He smiled.

"The rain began to sprinkle down, and the sagebrush opened up to greet the sky. The entire desert smelled alive.

"You chose a beautiful and perfect morning to make your first. The whole utankan began to sing." He nodded. "You had not learned to sing yet, of course, so we let you cry."

The elder set her back down on the ground. "That is why we named you Kaja, for the spring rain."


	9. Chapter 9

"Wake up!" Grima said, shoving Kaja's shoulder again.

The Tauren girl moaned. "Go away." She put the pillow over her head.

"Mom said to get up!"

Kaja rolled over, so Grima grabbed the blanket and pulled it to the floor.

"Okay, okay, I'm up. Leave me alone." Kaja stretched and pulled her nightgown over her head. She scratched her fur in a most un-ladylike manner and began to fumble with the clothes she had piled in the corner.

Grima gasped in shock. She pointed with arm outstretched. "You got boobies!"

Kaja screamed. "No!"

"What the devil is going on in here?" Agra said as she stomped into the bedroom. She cocked her head at the bawling Tauren girl curled up on her cot, and sat down beside her.

"Kaja got boobies," Grima announced proudly.

"Well, what's so bad about that?" Agra asked. She rubbed Kaja's bare back. "That just means you're growing up. You're becoming a woman." She tried not to let distress enter her voice. Inside her head, she was screaming, _No, not yet!_

Bottled emotion poured out in a breathless string. "But you just made me clothes and now I'm gonna' outgrow them and we can't afford to keep replacing my clothes constantly and it's all my fault!"

"Growing up is no one's fault." She put her arms around the girl. "Besides, soon we'll be able to share clothes, and that will be fun too."

She waited for the tears to slow. Agra kissed her head and thought about how little she missed being an adolescent. Every problem she had faced then had seemed like the end of the world, despite the fact that they seemed so unimportant now. It was such a confusing time.

Agra handed Kaja her blouse and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"Sweetie..." she cleared her throat a few times, trying to think of a way to broach the subject. There was just no point in dancing around it. Kaja wasn't getting any younger. "Do you know where babies come from?"

Kaja wiped her eyes and nodded her head. She stood and wrapped her skirt around her waist.

"You do?" Agra's brain was screaming, _How does she do that? How does she learn so much, so fast?_

"Babies come from a woman's stomach," Kaja said. "We saw this woman at the well, and she was really fat." She put her hands out in front of her stomach to demonstrate and puffed out her cheeks. "But she said she wasn't fat. She said her belly had a baby in it and when the baby was ready, it would come out and be her daughter."

Kaja cocked her head to the side and she screwed up her mouth in thought. Whenever Gorrum saw that look, he'd whisper to his wife that Kaja was working it all out. "Then we saw this other lady and she was really fat too, but she didn't have a baby in her belly." She nodded. "Just a lot of food, I think."

Agra took a deep breath. She looked at Grima, but the Orc girl seemed more interested in her doll than the conversation. "Do you know how a baby gets in a woman's tummy?"

Kaja slowly shook her head, but her eyes were somewhere else. She got that look again. She stopped shaking her head, and gave her mother a tentative nod.

"You do?"

Kaja's mouth was still very thoughtful. "We saw these dogs by the pond. They were trying to play 'leap the frog,' but they weren't very good at it. Igrim said they were making puppies."

Kaja nodded slowly. "So I think that woman must have played 'leap the frog,' because even though they call them puppies, they're just baby dogs, aren't they?"

"That's right, Kaja. Puppies are just babies. Orcs make babies. Tauren make babies too." Agra let out the breath she had been holding. This was going a lot easier than she had feared.

Kaja nodded. Agra could tell from her expression that she felt that the pieces fit together.

"Some day, you'll meet a Tauren boy, and play 'leap the frog' with him."

Kaja considered this and then shook her head. "No, boys are bossy and gross. I'll play 'leap the frog' with girls."

Agra sighed and looked at her hands. "Some day, when you get a little older, boys won't seem all that bad. They grow up too, you know."

Kaja looked skeptical.

"Daddy's a boy too, Kaja. When he was young, he was bossy and gross, and I didn't like him at all." Agra met Kaja's smile with her own. "But now I like him a lot.

"So some day you'll meet a Tauren boy that won't seem that bad either. And then you'll play 'leap the frog,' and maybe you'll get a Tauren baby in your tummy."

Kaja's expression was unreadable.

"Would you like that? To have a baby of your own?"

There was a very long pause while the girl considered it. She nodded her head a little, but without much conviction.

Grima had grown bored with the conversation and moved over beside her mother.

"Being a mother is a wonderful thing. I love being Grima's mother, and your mother also."

Kaja smiled, happy that Agra was her mother too.

"But being a mother is hard work," she explained. "It's not an easy job. I have to sew and cook and keep the two of you out of trouble."

Agra sighed with relief. "I'm so glad to have your father. I don't think I could do it without him." She put her arms around the children. "If it weren't for him, I'd have to do everything I do now, and earn money for food. I don't know if I could do both of our jobs, you know?"

Kaja weighed it all and nodded. She imagined Agra being both her mother and father. "Yeah. And when you went out on patrol, then we'd be all alone." She seemed a little panicked at the thought.

Agra squeezed her close. "Nothing is going to happen to your father, but I was just thinking... What would happen if you played 'leap the frog' with a Tauren boy, and he didn't want a baby? What if he left before the baby came out of your tummy?'"

Kaja's eyes opened wide. "Then... I'd have to go on patrol, and the baby would be all alone!"

Agra sighed silently, that was going to have to be close enough for now.

"It would be hard work wouldn't it? Going out on patrol and then coming back to make dinner and take care of a baby..."

Kaja nodded her head violently. "Yeah!"

"So you shouldn't..."

"Shouldn't play 'leap the frog' with boys!" the little girl shouted.

"Not unless you're sure," her mother corrected her, "that they want to stick around and raise up a baby with you."


	10. Chapter 10

"Hit it harder!" Nogg growled. "It won't bend if you tap it."

The Goblin threw back a drink of water and wiped his mouth with his wrist. "Stop missing! Arg! It's right there! No, now it's cold. No, stop. Put it back in the coke and pump the bellows."

Kaja did what she was told, but she was panting hard. "It's so hot!"

"You don't say?" the little green creature sneered. "Wait until you try this at the end of summer! Are you certain you want to be an engineer?"

Kaja nodded with resolve. "I just wish I didn't have so much fur." She wiped her face and a large handful of hair drifted with it.

"Gah!" Nogg groaned. "You're shedding all over my shop! It's... it's on everything." He spit some fur out of his mouth. "I told you Tauren can't be engineers."

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, "I can't help it."

"You're sweeping the shop again before you leave! The entire shop!" His beady little eyes darted everywhere at the drifting fur.

Kaja nodded and loosened her apron.

"Never take off your apron!" Nogg snapped.

Kaja hung her head and backed away from the forge. She looked around the shop, but they were alone. Although normally a busy place, no one hung around when the forge was fired, not unless they needed to use it.

Kaja reached behind her back and untied her skirt. With a careful tug, she pulled it out from underneath the apron and set it on a table. Standing there without a skirt felt stupid, but at least it was cooler. The apron was a bit like a dress anyhow, she told herself.

"Better?" Nogg growled.

"A little." She bit her lip as she fussed with her blouse. "Don't look, okay?"

"No one tells me what to do in my own shop!" he shouted.

"Okay, okay," she murmured. Kaja turned around and quickly stripped the blouse away before covering herself back up with the apron.

"Now... for the love of everything metal..." Nogg rolled his eyes, "Can we please finish this?"

She hesitated a little longer, then with a deep breath, fiddled again behind her apron and squatted down. Carefully hiding them from view, she balled up her small clothes and buried them underneath her skirt, out of sight. That was definitely better.

Nogg didn't say a word, but he was grinning wide.

Kaja made a fist and a fearsome face. "Put that smile back in it's box right now... or so help me, I'll break out every last tooth I see."

Ever so slowly, the Goblin pursed his lips into a thin line. "Are you ready now, your highness?"

Kaja returned to the bellows and worked them hard.

Nogg was unusually quiet. Despite the ringing in her ears from all the hammerfalls, she distinctly heard some muttering about having to "wear stilts, anyhow".

# # #

Kaja sat on a low stair rail in the Drag, surrounded by friends. Speaking all at once, they reassured her that her new, short hair looked great. She was clearly unconvinced.

Standing an entire head taller than any of her friends, she felt conspicuously obvious all the time. The hair that hung down her back had been the one constant in her life, the one link to a life before Orgrimmar. She told herself that it had to go, but now that it was gone, she felt more naked than she ever had before.

"It shows off your shoulders," Hargu said, "and you have great shoulders."

Everyone agreed.

Kaja groaned and tried to ignore the lanky Tauren boy that loomed over her friends, but it was impossible. Gom was yet another head taller than Kaja. Skinny as a reed, his head hung over Kaja's friends like a chandelier, waiting to be acknowledged.

He smelled strong, like he did not bathe often enough. Her friends didn't seem to notice, but Kaja sure did. She always knew he was around, even before she saw him.

When the boy could take being ignored no longer, he blurted out, "Hi, Kaja!"

Kaja hung her head. She did not want to be associated with him. "Hi," she muttered.

"What are you doing, Gom?" Hargu said.

He turned to face her and nearly knocked her over with his arm. Several friends moved to avoid being stepped on by his giant hooves.

Kaja sank lower into herself.

The Tauren stared at the Orc girl with an unequaled intensity. "I'm hauling stuff for Dran Droffers. He needs all kinds of stuff brought to his shop and delivered too." He took a moment to swallow, and then turned back to Kaja. "It turns out almost everyone needs something done. If you just ask them, you can help out everyone!"

Kaja rolled her eyes. He was just so... ugh. This had to be the most embarrassing day in her entire life. "That's great, Gom." Sarcasm dripped.

The Tauren stood up straight. "It's Grom'tuk now. That's what everyone calls me down at..." He stopped short of saying "the orphanage". "That's just what everyone calls me now."

Suddenly self-conscious, he gathered up his bags and hurried off.

"Oh, don't..." Hargu sighed.

All of the friends (beside Kaja) broke into laughter. "You like him, don't you!" they teased. "Hargu likes Gom!"

"What?" the Orc girl groaned and blushed, "I think he's nice. You should spend more time with him, Kaja."

Kaja's jaw hung open. After a long pause, she managed, "Ew!"

"What?" Hargu looked at all of her friends. "He's a nice guy. And it's not like there's a lot of Tauren in Orgrimmar..."

Kaja looked horrified. "I think I would rather bludgeon myself with a sledgehammer..."

Hargu started to say something else but Kaja cut her off by waving both hands.

"Just... ew..."


	11. Chapter 11

The sky was turning pink as Kaja crept up the long staircase towards home. She winced at each hoofstrike and how it echoed across the Drag. She reached out for the doorknob, but the door swung quietly open before her fingers touched iron.

Kaja had seen Agra's angry face many times, but this was beyond that. Way beyond it.

She stooped her head guiltily and walked inside.

"Where have you been, young lady?" Each word was carefully enunciated.

"We were up on the summit..." she started to say.

"You were outside the city?" Agra shrieked. "Do you realize there have been three centaur raids in as many weeks?"

"We were nowhere near the valley! Centaurs never go up on the summit! They'd practically have to go through Orgrimmar to get there!" If any of the neighbors had still been sleeping, they were probably up now.

"That's no excuse! There's no end of danger you kids are exposed to out there. Bears... mountain lions..."

"We were perfectly safe, Mom! Some of the boys brought swords, just in..." she slapped her hands over her mouth.

The sound Agra made went right through Kaja's head. "_Boys_? You were out until dawn with _boys_?"

"Nothing happened, Mom!" Kaja's eyes filled with tears and she turned to leave.

"You're not going anywhere, Missy!" Agra screamed at her back. "You're grounded... for the rest of your life!"

"I knew you'd never understand," she cried, but she was already off running down the stairs at breakneck speed.

"Come back here!" Agra chased after her for a while, her bathrobe waving behind her. She stopped and screamed at the fleeing girl's back, "You better run!"

It was the sort of phrase you regret forever; words spoken harshly on a late summer morning. It was the kind you wish you could take back once you said it... anything to stop it from playing over and over inside your head.

# # #

Fall had been short and winter came early. A fire crackled in the hearth, but it did little warm the mood.

The family was dressed in their nicest clothes; Gorrum in his uniform and the girls in their dresses.

After being admonished multiple times not to get herself dirty, Grima was spinning in place.

Kaja sat in a chair and her mother tortured her with a hairbrush.

"Ow! You're hurting me!"

"I'm not doing it on purpose!" said Agra. "I'm trying to get the tangle out. Is this motor oil? Tar?"

"You're pulling out all of my hair."

"Could we please not fight?" Gorrum asked.

Kaja leapt to her feet, knocking the chair to the ground. She was out the door again, without grabbing her jacket or pulling the door shut.

"Let her go," Gorrum said, putting a hand on Agra's shoulder.

"Why am I always the villain?" Agra cried.

Gorrum embraced her closely.

When no one spoke, Grima tugged on Gorrum's jacket. "Are we still going to see the old man? He's nice."

Gorrum looked to Agra and then back to his daughter. "Of course," he said, putting a hand on Grima's head.

"Kaja knows where the funeral is being held. She can meet us there, if she'd like."


	12. Chapter 12

"Oh, I'm sorry," Dragga said.

Kaja gave her friend a confused look. It was the dead of winter, but Kaja's coat stubbornly refused to grow thick. She had her collar turned-up as protection against the cold winds that blew through Orgrimmar's canyons.

"I'm just being inconsiderate," Dragga explained. "Here I am, complaining about this Orc boy and that, and there's what, one? two? Tauren boys in all of Orgrimmar? You must think I'm very petty."

Kaja smiled and put a huge hand around Dragga's shoulder. "You're fine, really. I like hearing what you think of them." She shrugged. "I don't like Tauren boys, anyhow."

Dragga froze in place, their destination momentarily forgotten. Her blue eyes were open wide and both hands covered her mouth. Then in the quietest of whispers, "You mean you prefer... girls?"

Kaja's mind raced. "What? Oh! No." She laughed and waved her hands in front of her chest. "No. I mean that I don't want anyone."

Dragga put her arm around Kaja's slender waist and they continued down the Drag.

"I want my life to be defined by what I am and what I've done," the Tauren girl explained, "not by who I bed. I want to create."

"Well, women are all about creation."

"I don't mean 'with my womb,'" Kaja sighed. "I want to make things with my hands. I want them to be what I choose, not because of who they are."

Without effort, Kaja put her hands under Dragga's arms and lifted her to a seat on the rock wall. Kaja leaned against the wall so they could talk face-to-face.

Being best friends with a Tauren girl required being adaptable.

Kaja pointed to the far end of the Drag, where the canyon disappeared around a turn. "Suppose you saw Thrall walking this way. Would you think, 'His mother created such a great man!' or would you think 'He is such a great man!'?"

Dragga crossed her arms and grinned at the question.

"I want to build a castle!" Kaja said, "The greatest castle ever. Something that people look at and say, 'Kaja made that.' Or perhaps something smaller. Perhaps I'll just make something better than anyone else can, and people will say, 'Well, if you need one of those, then you should go to Kaja. No one can make them as well.'"

The Tauren girl sighed and leaned her butt against the wall. "I want to be known for my accomplishments, not for my children."

"So you want fame?"

Kaja shrugged. "You know, instead of making a great castle, I could make the doorknob on that castle. People could use that doorknob every day, and they'd be so distracted by the glory of the building around it that they'd never even notice the doorknob in their hand. But that would be okay with me." She nodded slowly. "I wouldn't care, because I'd still know that the doorknob was mine, and that it was exactly as I chose it to be. It would look the way I wanted it to look, and it would be the size and shape I chose; and it would be the best doorknob, even if no one ever noticed."

Somewhere overhead, a door banged open. "Kaja!" Agra screamed.

Kaja looked up. There on the stoop in front of the apartment stood her mother. It was too far away for her to make out Agra's face, but there was no mistaking the scream she had heard so many times these last few months.

Agra spotted her down in the Drag. "Kaja Beruna Longstrider!"

Kaja's ears fell against her head. She sank down into herself.

"Something in your backpack is smoldering! You come up here this minute..."

With a loud "fwoop!" Agra was replaced by a black cloud of smoke.

Kaja stared wordlessly with jaw agape as smoke continued to pour from her home. She made a quick mental inventory of the powders she could have left in her pack.

"I... have to go," Kaja mumbled to her terror-stricken friend.

# # #

Kaja's cot had been completely destroyed in the blast, or "unintended detonation," as Nogg referred to them.

Fortunately, the only other damage had been a thick layer of soot and an uncomfortable silence that hung between Kaja and her mother.

There are only so many times you can apologize.

There is only so much you can forgive.

Kaja straightened up from where she knelt and dunked the brush back into the soapy water. The slow, heavy sound of boots and the jingling of mail approached her from behind. With a small sigh, she brushed her hair from her eyes and stood up to face her father.

It hadn't taken him long to get there, but he had certainly heard the entire story by now. Kaja looked down at his grim expression and her heart sunk lower in her chest.

Gorrum put his arms around his daughter and pulled her to him. Kaja returned the embrace and rested her cheek on the top of his head.

"I'm glad no one was hurt," was all he said.


	13. Chapter 13

Kaja beat the metal with all her anger, but the late-winter sun had fallen and the anger still remained.

Nogg waddled towards the door. Everyone else had long since gone home. "Lock up, okay?"

Kaja nodded without even a grunt. She let nothing come between the anger and the hammerfalls.

Nogg stopped and stared for a while before returning. He climbed on the worktable beside the anvil, as he used to do during her lessons. There hadn't been any sessions recently.

"So... um... yer okay, y'know?" he said.

Kaja glanced at him briefly as the hammer approached its apex.

"And all those times, I hassled you..." Nogg cleared his throat, "when I said you were sexy and called you 'a hot slice of cheese steak'... or that crack about chewing your cud... or all the 'Got Milk?' jokes... or..."

"Is there a point to this?" Kaja growled without looking up.

"Well, I... I just wanted to say that I was out of line."

She glanced at him again, her expression unreadable.

"I can't help it!" he exclaimed. "I'm a funny guy. I keep my friends entertained..."

"You don't have any friends," she interrupted.

Nogg shut up and watched her hammer for a while. The metal was cold, but sometimes there's a difference between making something and beating on iron.

"Look, Kaja, I know it's none of my business, but you'd probably feel a lot better if you talked about this."

Kaja continued to pound on the metal. The cadence of the strikes was hypnotic. "You're right." She nodded as she "worked". "It's none of your business."

Some time passed before he spoke again. "There was this time," Nogg said. "Long time ago. Long before you were born. Back when I lived with my parents."

That was enough to make Kaja stop. Nogg never talked about himself. He never gave out anything personal.

"My folks stopped talking to each other. They fought a lot, so when they spoke, it was just yelling, really. But the silence was worse." He scratched one gigantic ear. "They just couldn't stand each other anymore. My brothers and sisters and I, well most of us, weren't old enough yet to take care of ourselves, so we were all sorts of stressed out."

Kaja nodded silently.

"Something had to give. One of them had to kill the other, or leave, or who knows what? All we were sure of is that something terrible had to happen." He nodded slowly, not looking at her. "Then the greatest thing in Azeroth happened. You know what it was?"

Kaja shook her head slowly, without taking her eyes from her mentor.

"My dad moved out." He nodded. "He moved some kids from one room to another, and then took over a bedroom for himself. And then," he snapped his fingers, "everything was better."

"Everything," Kaja snapped her fingers, "was better?"

"Basically, yeah. Everyone started getting along again. Us kids were kind'a crowded, but hey, that's a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things, y'know?"

Kaja just stared. "There a point?"

"The point is that my mom wasn't broken. Neither was my dad. They just needed a little space." He gestured with his palms to see if she got it. "Once they had a little space of their own, then it was all good again."

Nogg sighed. She wasn't making this easy on him, but she had no intention of making anything easy for him. He had yet to make anything easy for her.

"You see, I've got this buddy..."

Kaja's face grew more stern.

"Okay, okay, business associate," he corrected himself, "and business is bad for him, really bad. If he doesn't do something to lower his costs soon, he's gonna' find himself out business all together."

Kaja just stared, so he continued. "He's got a lot of extra space - a whole extra floor that he doesn't need. So if he could rent it out as an apartment..."

"Let me guess, the apartment is right next to yours and there's a little hole drilled in the wall so you can watch me undress..."

"No, no, no! This place is all the way over in the Valley of Strength. Far away from my apartment."

Kaja stared silently. He wasn't even offended by the implication. Goblins are disgusting.

"Look, this is prime real estate; you can see the gates of Orgrimmar from the shop's front door! Everyone files right past it on their way to the Drag. Incredible visibility. You could sell swords to priests with a shop like that."

Nogg always spoke faster when he was wheeling and dealing, and he was spinning over words now.

"Personally, I'm waiting for him to go out of business so I can snatch up the entire building, and move the machine shop out of this dump."

"Liar," she said without emotion. "You do at least half your business with the army, and it's no coincidence that your shop is right next to their practice fields. If you moved, you'd lose that, and you never pass on easy money."

A slow grin spread over the Goblin's face. "What is it you're plotting?"

"I'm going to buy this shop from Rezlak someday," she said.

"That little twerp?" Nogg laughed. He slapped his knee. "Whatever gave the idea that Rezlak owns this building? I own Nogg's Machine Shop. Me! Nogg."

"For now," Kaja said without flinching. "But if you keep placing stupid wagers with him, or you keep messing with his daughter, then sooner or later he's going to take you out for a long walk in the desert, and you won't be coming back."

Nogg stared in shock. She didn't miss a thing.

"Rezlak doesn't want an engineering shop. In fact, it would probably he a tough thing to sell at all in an Orcish town." Kaja allowed herself a small smile. "Care to wager that I could pick it up for a song?" She grinned. "Hrm, guess I'd have a hard time collecting on that bet, huh?"

The two stared at each other for the longest time.

"So, the apartment," Nogg finally said, breaking the silence. "You interested?"

"What's your angle?"

"Finder's fee," he admitted.

"I'll let you know."


	14. Chapter 14

Malton rested on his elbows and stared out at the valley below.

Kaja laid on her back and tossed a pebble up in the air with one hand, and tried to catch it with the other. It was a lot harder to do than it looked.

"Do you think Groma likes me?"

Kaja shut her eyes and gnashed her teeth. _How could someone be so cute, and so stupid at the same time?_ she wondered.

"Maybe she's stuck up?" he wondered out loud. "Has she ever mentioned me?"

Kaja wanted little more than to throw the pebble at the boy's head with all her might. "Have you ever seen me hang out with Groma?" Kaja asked.

Malton thought about it for a while. "No."

"Then why do you think I'd know if she'd ever mentioned you?"

The Orc tried to shrug, but shrugging while resting on your elbows is harder to do than it looks.

The two were silent. Kaja closed her eyes against the spring sunshine. It felt so nice and warm, despite the chilly clifftop beneath her.

"What about Zor? She's cute."

This time, Kaja did throw the pebble.

"What did'ja do that for?" Malton whined as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Don't you think this is a little weird?" Kaja asked. Her tone would not be called "conversational".

"What's weird?"

"You brought me up here so you could spy on the girls unseen, and then you ask me if I think they like you." Kaja wagged her head, like she shouldn't have to explain this. "Doesn't that seem weird to you?"

"You're my best friend!" Malton said by way of explanation. "That's what best friends do."

"But I'm a _girl_," Kaja said with great emphasis on the last word.

"Yeah, a Tauren _girl_," he replied, trying to mimic her tone. He rolled his eyes at her. "And I guess if I was a Tauren guy, it would be kind'a weird. But then again, if I were a Tauren guy, then I'd probably be staring down at you and asking someone else if they thought you liked me."

"So Orc guys can't be attracted to Tauren gals?" she asked matter-of-factly.

Malton stared at her with a blank expression. His face was cute and his lips looked kissable to Kaja, but "blank" was not Malton at his best. She thought about his butt instead.

The gears turned in the boy's head, but the clutch was not engaged. She might as well have asked him if birds wanted to write poetry.

"Why would they be?"

Kaja groaned in frustration and laid back down. She stared up at the wispy clouds overhead.

That had clearly been the wrong question for him to ask. He could see that, but what sense did any of this conversation make? It would be like asking a squirrel if it thought a fish was smart. It hardly mattered what the squirrel thought of the fish.

"Why?" Malton asked. "Do you find _me_ attractive?"

Kaja rolled over on her side, away from him.

"Yes."

The Orc boy stared at her back, dumbfounded. He had thought that the question was absurd enough to end the conversation, but instead...

Moments passed and the space between them seemed to grow.

He tried to imagine her as attractive, but it wasn't working. She was a girl, and that was good, but she was also tall and furry. She had a tail. How could you feel attracted to someone who had a tail?

He tried to imagine her without the tail, and not as tall. That helped a little. He reasoned that she had a nice shape. Kaja wasn't very curvy, but there are worse things in the world than not having big curves.

A tail was one of those things.

He tried not to think about it.

Malton wondered if that sort of thing ever happened - two people from different races being attracted to each other. Could couples like that have children?

Is that where Tauren and centaurs came from originally?

And if so, _ew_.

What would others think of a couple like that? Would anyone ever accept them?

It seemed... unlikely.

Suddenly he felt an overwhelming need to get away; to leave the cliffs overlooking Orgrimmar.

"You wanna' go for a walk?" he asked.

Kaja sat up and studied his face for a bit before nodding.


	15. Chapter 15

Kaja and Malton walked along the clifftops side-by-side. They didn't have any real destination, but it felt good just to get away from everyone.

The Orc climbed over a small ledge that was surrounded by cacti. He reached out his hand to help Kaja up.

The moment stretched. Had they ever held hands before? Malton didn't think they had. Kaja was sure they hadn't.

His hand was calloused and strong.

So was hers.

The trail leveled off and widened a bit. There was no reason to keep holding hands, but they did anyhow.

"You're lucky to apprentice Nogg."

"I am?" Kaja asked. "I don't feel lucky."

"At least you get to make stuff," Malton explained. "All I get to do for my grandpop is haul this to storage, haul that from storage. He never lets me do anything."

"Well, I'm sure that someday..."

"He doesn't even salvage anything himself. Did you know that?"

Kaja shook her head and let the boy talk. It's strange, she thought, that he had never talked about his grandfather's shop before.

"The old man pays people to do salvage for him and he calculates what he thinks it will cost and what he figures he can sell stuff for." The boy shrugged helplessly. "That's what the job is really... moving numbers around on parchment. I call it 'Goblin work'.

"The hardest part of the job is _negotiation_. Negotiation, of all things! What kind of honor and glory is there in trying to talk people out of their gold?"

Kaja thought that actually sounded a lot like what Nogg did. He knew how to make all sorts of things, but instead he made the things that he knew he'd make profit from, no matter how inferior they might be to the things he _could_ make.

And everyone knew that Goblins lived to negotiate.

The two wandered toward the summit overlooking Orgrimmar and stumbled across a clear spring that Kaja had never seen before. The crystal-clear pool was shallow at the edge, and fell off quickly after that.

Kaja squealed with glee. "Tadpoles!"

She flopped down on her stomach and rested her chin on the back of her hand. She gently touched her large, primary finger on the interface between sandy land and calm water.

Malton squatted down beside her so his hip brushed against her ribs. "You like tadpoles?" He dabbled a finger into the water and the tadpoles raced away from it.

Kaja nodded. "I love how they change. They start out drab and brown, and turn beautiful and green."

An awkward moment slipped between them. Their eyes darted between her brown finger and his green hand.

They pulled their hands back in unison and silence.

It was so strange being far away from the city. The silence was so much larger than either of them.

A raven cawed in the distance, but even that interruption was short-lived.

"We could go swimming," he suggested.

"Okay."


	16. Chapter 16

Malton blushed furiously as Kaja stripped off her blouse.

"You wouldn't... tell anyone..." he mumbled as he untied his shirt.

Kaja mashed her shirt up to her chest. "Are you kidding?"

"'Cause my grandpop..."

"Wouldn't get a chance!" she finished for him. "I may be adopted, but my dad would kill us both."

Silence.

"Still want to go swimming?"

Malton smiled. He removed his shirt. "You only live once."

The Tauren girl stared at his chest. "Why do Orc guys have nipples?"

He looked down and shrugged. "How would I know? Don't Tauren guys have nipples?"

"How would I know?" she replied.

Malton made a face. "Well, that's not very fair." He continued when she met his gaze. "I don't get to see anything."

She looked down. "What are you talking about?" Kaja said. She took one breast in each hand. "These are my boobs!"

"Well yeah... but they're covered with fur. You might as well still be wearing a blouse."

Kaja growled a bit. "Would you like me to shave them for you?"

Malton tried to picture that, but it looked stupid. He tried picturing her without any fur anywhere.

Kaja had her fists on her hips. "Are you imagining me with shaved breasts?"

"Um... no..." Malton mumbled as he removed his pants.

"Well, _I_ can see something!" Kaja exclaimed, staring at how his tip peeked up beyond his small clothes.

Malton clapped two hands over his crotch.

"Oh come on! What does it look like?" She put her hands on his wrists, but didn't try to pry them away. "Does it look like a dog's? Or like a horse's? ..."

"What!" he exclaimed.

"Well I've never seen an Orc's," she hesitated, "_bits_ before."

"No, it doesn't look like a dog's!"

"So, like a horse's bits?"

"No!" he shouted.

"Well that's good," Kaja said. "You'd need some awful roomy pants."

"What are you? Some kind of expert on animal _bits_?"

Now he'd gone too far. She put her fists back on her hips. "You are not going to pretend to me that you've never noticed that animals have bits." She flailed her hands in front of her. "They're right... there!"

She put her fingers back to his wrists and gently pulled away his hands. She peeled his small clothes down.

"That's so weird!" she squealed. She poked it gently with a primary finger. "It's so... springy."

He covered his face with his hands.

"And these! These are just bizarre." She gently poked them too.

Kaja stepped out of her skirt and he groaned. "Oh come on! This is so totally unfair!"

"What?"

"You can see _everything_, and I don't get to see... _anything_!"

Kaja looked down at herself. He was right. There really wasn't much of anything to see. She had a triangle of fur that was longer and fluffier than the rest, but that was about it.

She chewed on her lower lip a moment, debating. "You really wanna see my bits?"

Malton nodded his head, "Well, yeah!"

"Okay," she said as she turned around. "But if you ever say anything, I'll kill you myself."

Kaja took a deep breath, spread her legs slightly, lifted her tail, and bent over.

He didn't say a thing.

Kaja was suddenly self-conscious. She dove into the water.

Malton jumped in after her.


	17. Chapter 17

"It's c-cold!" Malton shouted when he came up for air.

Kaja wanted to stand up and get more of her out of the water, but her nipples were sticking through her thin fur now. She put her arms over her breasts and nodded.

"At least you have f-fur!"

She shook her head. "The water went right through. Trust me," she mumbled.

"Oh man," Kaja said, "your lips are turning blue.

He tried to say something, but his teeth chattered hard.

"Come here," she said. Kaja put her arms around him and pulled him close. He squeezed her hard.

The Tauren girl wondered if the fur did help a bit. He was shaking much more than she was.

Their lips met. Kaja had imagined Malton being her first kiss. She had just never pictured it would be this cold.

"Let's get you out of here." Kaja pulled herself out onto the bank. Malton had a death grip on her. He ended up laying on top of her stomach.

"Are you gonna' be okay?"

The boy couldn't form words, but he nodded.

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him close. They laid there with their faces pressed against each other's necks. In a while his shivering started to slow.

They were kissing again. It was awkward and strange, but at the same time, sweet and nice. The smell on his breath was strong.

Malton pulled away a couple of times, momentarily overwhelmed by the thought of kissing a cow.

He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and she pulled away, but returned to try again.

Kaja slid her hands down to his butt. His crotch on her stomach was a reminder of just how much taller she was.

He put his hands on her breasts. She couldn't decide if she liked that or not.

He was kind of rubbing himself on her. She caressed his buns, trying not to analyze what was happening.

He wasn't really kissing her anymore. His lips were just pressed hard against her own.

Suddenly he froze and his expression changed. His cheeks blushed with embarrassment.

"I... have to go," he mumbled. In a mad scramble, he was gone - putting his shirt on backwards as he fled.

"Don't... go..." But he was already gone.

She sat alone in the mud for what seemed like hours. What was done was done. There's no changing the past.

Kaja used the cold water to rinse the mud from her butt, and some goo from the soft fur of her tummy.

She got dressed slowly and walked back to town, alone.

They never talked again.

# # #

"Mom, I've got to go."

"Go?" Agra said. "But you just got here."

"No, I mean I've got to leave."

"Oh." Agra looked a little stunned. Life as she knew it was about to change. She tried to imagine her little girl out on her own, but couldn't. She felt dizzy.

Kaja, on the edge of tears since she came in, started bawling. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"No, don't be silly," her mother replied, taking the taller woman in her arms. "Moving out is part of growing up. I just didn't realize... it would be so soon."

Kaja wiped her tears and tried to smile.

"Do you think your father and I could have started our lives together if we were living at Grandma's house?"

Kaja sat in the big chair and her mother poured her tea.

"Have you found a place to stay?" Agra asked.

Kaja nodded slightly into her tea. "Nogg found me a place."

Agra made a foul face. It was clear what she thought of Goblins. "Whatever he asked for in rent, offer him half."

The Tauren's smile was genuine.

Kaja chewed on her lower lip. "Do you think Dad..."

Agra shook her head and sipped her own tea. "No, are you kidding? He'll never be ready for you to grow up. But he doesn't have much choice, does he?"

Kaja stared into her hot mug and rolled it slowly between her palms.

"Honey?" Agra stammered a bit and her daughter's encouraging smile helped her find the words. "I know you're all grown up and independent now, but would it be okay... if I helped pick out some stuff for your new place?"

And for the first time in what seemed like ages, the apartment overlooking the Drag felt like home.


End file.
